1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, for example, an information processing system which can be used in creating contents, and sharing of data of the created contents, over a network, and to an information processing method thereof applied to the information processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As for one form of network usage, so-called content distribution and sharing of audio, video, and so forth, has widely come to be performed. For example, with a content distribution system, a great number of data files serving as contents to be distributed are saved and managed at a server. A user having an information processing terminal device such as a personal computer operates application software (client software) having a client function corresponding to content distribution, so as to download the desired content from the server. The data file serving as content that has been downloaded in this way is normally managed by being stored and saved in a storage device within the information processing terminal device by the client software. Subsequently, the user can listen to/view and enjoy this as sound and/or video, by performing an operation at the client software for playing the data file serving as the content stored in the information processing terminal device.
Also, with a content sharing system, a user of an information processing terminal, for example, uploads to a server data files serving as contents such as audio, video, and so forth. A server of such a sharing system has a site (Web page) for posting uploaded contents. A user of a general information processing terminal device can access this site and search for contents he/she is interested in, for example. Contents found by this searching are accessed and played, so as to be viewed/listened to, and thus are shared.
On the other hand, there is application software (editing software) capable of taking in audio data and video data and the like as material, so as to be modified, edited, and a new tune can be created, and in recent years in particular, there is widespread use thereof, from that which is easy to operate to complicated, by also common users as well.
As described above, such editing software can execute processing for changing actual data (audio/video data and so forth) serving as contents, for editing thereof. Accordingly, in the case of audio contents for example, modifying and editing or the like by taking in a part of original tune data as material, such with as so-called sampling, mash-ups, and so forth, can be easily performed. In fact, many tunes created by such techniques have been released by professional musicians or the like, for example. Description of such related art can be found in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-113066 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-72502.